


it has always been you

by books_and_spite



Category: The School for Good and Evil - Soman Chainani
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, During Canon, F/F, First Kiss, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Last Kiss, Rewritten Scene, The Author Regrets Everything, a very gay rewrite, they were in love i make the rules, this hurt to write, why am i hurting myself like this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:28:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26211196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/books_and_spite/pseuds/books_and_spite
Summary: The Good Dean leant down, and kissed her true love for the first and last time.Leonora closed her eyes.“Goodbye, Clarissa.”“Until we meet again, my love,” Clarissa breathed.Leonora took one last breath… and smiled.[or: a very gay and painful rewrite of lady lesso's death scene]
Relationships: Clarissa Dovey/Leonora Lesso
Comments: 11
Kudos: 12





	it has always been you

Sophie pressed her hand to Lady Lesso’s side. It came away soaked with blood. 

“You will _not_ die _,”_ Clarissa Dovey pleaded, kneeling next to her friend. “You will _not.”_

She knew better. So did Sophie.

She had known the moment she had seen the wound from Aric’s knife. 

Sophie glanced up. She couldn’t look at her Dean. Not when she had _caused_ all of it. Agatha, Tedros and the rest of the Old Good heroes stood at a distance, watching solemnly.

She looked back down. The wound was still bleeding.

“Clarissa," Lady Lesso rasped. “You know I will.” She raised one trembling hand to touch Clarissa’s, and the Good Dean pressed her bloodied hand to her best friend’s. 

For a moment Lady Lesso's eyes fluttered shut.

 _“No,”_ Sophie breathed even as Clarissa flinched back, jerking away-

And then her eyes flew back open again, and the two who loved her most let out a collective sigh of relief.

The Dean of Evil was still alive, but barely. Her breath came in short, shallow gasps, even as she tried in vain to say something.

“Shh. Just rest,” Clarissa whispered, brushing her other hand against Lady Lesso’s cheek, a gesture speaking of years on years of affection. There was nothing else to say. Not anymore. Sophie pressed closer to the Deans, hoping against hope that she could do something, say something, make them stop hurting. But she _couldn’t._

“I’m sorry,” she whimpered. “So _sorry-”_

“Don’t be.”

Lady Lesso was staring at her now, violet eyes clouded with pain. “What… made you… do it?” She forced out.

Sophie looked back at her.

“Tell… me.”

Sophie smiled, a small, pained smile. “The same thing that made you turn your back on Evil,” she said. _“Love.”_

Lady Lesso took Sophie’s hand in hers, her other hand still on Clarissa’s. “The Old and the New together,” she breathed. “Both in good hands.” 

“Please,” Clarissa said. “Please. Don’t go.” Her voice wavered, dangerously close to a sob. “I can’t-”

“You will go on, Clarissa,” Lady Lesso replied, faintly, and then breathed in sharply, trembling.

“This is all my _fault_ _-”_ Sophie cried.

 _“No,”_ the Dean of Evil hissed, steel in her voice. “Never that. You are my child. As much as my own son. You are loved, Sophie, remember, you are _loved-”_

Her voice cut off into a broken sob.

Clarissa touched her shoulder, gently, in a heartbreaking sort of grief. “Lady Lesso, please…”

“Leonora.”

Lady Lesso gazed up at her best friend. “My name- is- Leonora…”

The Dean of Good stared at her, helplessly, and Sophie slipped away to stand with Agatha and Tedros, watching the two exchange their last goodbye.

“You have saved me over and over again, Clarissa,” Leonora whispered. “It has always been you. _Always.”_

“Stay. Please,” Clarissa begged desperately. “I can’t- I can’t go on without you-”

“I love you,” Leonora rasped. “I always have and I always will.”  
  
The Good Dean leant down, and kissed her true love for the first and last time.

Leonora closed her eyes.

“Goodbye, Clarissa.”

“Until we meet again, my love,” Clarissa breathed.

Leonora took one last breath… and smiled. 

She never took another.

Clarissa finally wept, draping herself over her true love.

Sophie and Agatha stood together in silence, watching Clarissa hold Leonora’s dead body the way Agatha once held Sophie’s.

They had won the war.

But they had lost so much more.

**Author's Note:**

> i actually did almost cry writing this and i hope that you did reading it


End file.
